This was a long travel day. And since we failed to remember that we would lose an hour, we had to keep moving…no time for dawdling today, and that, unfortunately translates to no photo taking. We left the hotel at 8:15 and 64 degrees under partly cloudy skies and by mid-day the temps had risen to a blazing 106 degrees. This part of the country is having a heat wave!!!! And it looks like tomorrow will be much the same.

In no time we were crossing the NE corner of New Mexico. And for the short time we were there, we could see mountains on the horizon, rocky hills poking out of the ground, wild yellow flowers in the fields and in places, black lava rock strewn about in the meadows of yellow hay.  This is a product of the extinct Capulin Volcano which, I have discovered, is a national monument. Perhaps next time we will stop to visit.

We crossed into Texas and the time advanced one hour, instantly. Okay, now we will be an hour later than our worst case estimate. So, we pushed through. The road we traveled passed through many small towns, some were tired, with many abandoned buildings, others were healthy, like Childress and the famed Dumas, which gained its fame as the home of The Big Ding Dong Daddy, which was the icon of the radio station KDDD. (Interesting story if anyone cares to check it out.)

We followed the trains all day long, and they were going north with containers, empty coal cars, and what appeared to be cattle cars. And we saw lines of empty coal cars sitting idle waiting for an engine to come and take them somewhere north for a fill.

The Texas prairies turned to farm land with acres and acres of corn, great pastures with cattle, and that other thing that they do in Texas…oil. Some fields were filled with those hammers moving up and down in a slow cadence, filling the holding tanks, and making someone rich. And all of these things exist together, in harmony in Texas, although I can say, there was a fence between the cows and the corn…for obvious reasons.

And the Lone Star was flying everywhere. Texans are proud of their state and of their flag. And I think this would be a wonderful place to live…perhaps in the Hill Country just west of San Antonio. Much to consider.

We landed after 5 PM in Wichita Falls, TX, had a late dinner and will be off to bed soon. Tomorrow we have another long day and will leave early in hopes to be able to do a little sightseeing through the eastern side of Texas and down through Louisiana.

I have stolen a photo from Wiki of the volcano. Didn't want to leave the photos album empty. I know some people come here just for the photos. And that is great, except I disappointed them today. Will do better tomorrow.

I also included a photo of Beamer, who is always begging for food. One would think he doesn’t get enough to eat, but he loves his snacks, which he gets often and plenty. Gotta love him, cause he loves everyone.

Oh, yes. And a thanks to La Quinta for the room with a full kitchen. Great upgrade today